5B Activities for the Week of October 27th, 2014

Hello Students and Parents!

Here are the reminders for this week:

1.  The Boosterthon Fun Run will take place this Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 outside.  (weather permitting)  Parents may come to cheer on the students.  Please arrive 15 minutes early to check in.  However, in the case of rain, the Fun Run will have to be moved indoors, therefore, parents will not be able to watch due to lack of space. Thank you for all of the donations.  Please keep them coming in!

2.  The annual Halloween Parade and Party will be this Friday, October 31st!  The parade will begin promptly at 2:00.  Parents can come to watch if the parade is outdoors.

Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week:

Word Study:  We are on Lesson 8, Consonant "le" words.  (C-le) The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.

Math Acceleration:  We are moving right along in Unit 2.  We have discussed ratio and used ratio language to describe a relationship between two quantities.  We have also learned the concept of a unit rate.  We have written our own real-world math ratio problems, solved them and shared them with our peers.  This week, we will begin discussing proportions and then move into percents.

English Language Arts (ELA):  Becoming Naomi Leon continues to be our focus this week.  We should be finishing this book by week's end.  Vocabulary development and answering text-dependent questions will be our focus.  Last week, we continued to practice annotating and how to summarize based on our annotating skills.  We will continue to practice these skills using our anchor text.  Last week, we started recording our Where I'm From poems.  This week, some students will begin presenting them while others continue to record theirs.  The presentation of the poems will be ongoing.  Last week we also began writing our first narratives.  We brainstormed some ideas using graphic organizers and some students have begun the writing process.  We will continue to work on these narratives during ELA time this week.  Also during ELA time, we will be learning about grammar conventions in writing.

Social Studies:  We will be finishing up SS by the end of the week.  We will continue to research and discuss various explorers and exploration.  Some of our topics this week will include the voyages of Columbus, longitude and latitude, different Worlds collide and life in New Spain.

That's it for now.  Please email me with any questions.

Thank you!

Mrs. Bennick :-)

5B Activities for the Week of October 20th, 2014

Hello Parents and Students!

Here are the reminders for this week:

1.  Boosterthon will begin this week!  This is a new fundraising program at Watts.  The students will be introduced to it this week.  Information will be forthcoming!

2.  If you have not returned the Parent-Teacher Conference form, please do so at your earliest convenience.  Thank you!

3.  The end of the 1st Quarter is this Friday, October 24th!  That was fast!

Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week: 

Word Study:  This week we will be reviewing all that we've learned in word study during the 1st Quarter.  We will be focusing on words and syllable types that are Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions, VC-e and Soft "C" and "G".  The words have been posted to the blog and the test will be on Friday.

Math Acceleration:  Unit 2 begins this week!  We are running just a little behind, so we will be stepping up the pace just a bit.  This unit focuses on Ratios, Unit Rates, Proportions and Percents.  Our first lesson will be on dependent and independent variables and then we will be moving into ratios.  Students have begun working on www.frontrowed.com as well.  This is a great resource in which the kids can utilize at home as well.

English Language Arts (ELA):  We accomplished a lot last week!  We will be finishing up some projects this week as it is the last week of the quarter.  We will finish (or get close to finishing) our anchor text, Becoming Naomi Leon.  We will continue analyzing our text-dependent questions and studying vocabulary related to this book.  We will continue our journal writing as well as comparing and contrasting characters.  We will also be summarizing the chapters using our recently learned annotating skills!  :-)  Our citizenship lessons will continue and our current focus is bullying.  Finally, we will be recording our Where I'm From poems.

Social Studies:  We have a lot going on in SS this week!  First, we will be finishing up our mini SS research projects.  Presentations will begin on Friday and continue into the following week.  Also, we will be working on part of the Think Quest.  This part will focus on explorers who sailed for various European countries.  The students will also be working in inquiry circles to obtain information about these various explorers. Finally, students have completed their Taino diary entries and will be working on their European diary entries to conclude the week.

That is it for now!  Please email me with questions.  Thank you and have a great week!

~Mrs. Bennick :-)

5B Activities for the Week of 10/14/2014

Hello Parents and Students!

Here are the reminders for this week:

1.  There is no school tomorrow, Monday , October 13th, due to the Columbus Day holiday.  Enjoy the extra day off.

Here's what's going on this week in the curricular areas:

Word Study:  We will use this week for review of the syllable types we've learned so far this year.  (Closed, Open, Open with Exceptions and Vowel Consonant Silent "e".   There will be no test on Friday.

Math Acceleration:  We completed our Unit 1 test last Friday.  We will review this test on Tuesday and continue working on Multiplication of Fractions and will then move onto Division of Fractions.  Later in the week we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on Rates, Ratios, Proportions and Percents. (The unit order has changed since last year.)

ELA (English Language Arts):  Many of the skills/topics that we have been working on in ELA are ongoing.  We will continue to focus on vocabulary, comprehension and grammar with our anchor text Becoming Naomi Leon.  This book is also a great tool for teaching Social Emotional Learning.  Our citizenship lesson for this week is on Bullying.  What is a bully?  How to you know when bullying is occurring?  What should you do when you are faced with a bully?  We will discuss these and more questions regarding bullying.  We have all finished our Where I'm From poems.  If time allows this week, we will be creating our digital media projects with them.  They should be awesome when completed!  The students will be introduced to narrative writing.  We will learn what a narrative is and brainstorm some ideas as far as writing a narrative.  We will also be reading a book from our reading anthology, Sees Behind Trees.  As I am typing this, I am fairly confident that there's no way we will be able to accomplish all of this plus the other subjects in a four day week.  Be prepared to see some of these activities pushed to next week.  It's better to go deep than to skim the surface.  Thank you for understanding.  :-)

Social Studies:  In Common Core, many of the subjects all come together or overlap.  This is certainly the case with social studies and ELA .  This past week, we have been studying a book entitled, Encounter.  We have discussed inferences and figurative language and why an author would choose to use inferences and figurative language in text.  Of course, vocabulary development and comprehension skills are ongoing.  We discussed point of view and perspective and how the Taino Indians  and Europeans felt when their land was taken over or when land was discovered.  This week, we will continue to discuss these things and take it a step further by writing our own journal entries from these two perspectives.  We will also be reading Christopher Columbus Journals.  At some point, we will begin our own Think Quest pertaining to Exploration.

We have some ambitious goals this week to meet, but this is a very hard-working group of kids!  We'll do our best!

As always, if you have any questions, please email me.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Bennick :-)

Halloween Parade/Party Information

October 9, 2014 Dear Parents,   On Friday, October 31, May Watts School will celebrate a Fall Festival and Halloween Parade.  Various activities integrating curriculum will be occurring throughout the day in all Kindergarten through Grade 5 classrooms.  The parade will proceed from the north gym doors and finish up at the south gym doors, weather permitting.  We will walk around the building on the sidewalk areas.  Please keep this area clear of people, dogs, strollers, etc.  The parade will occur at 2:00 p.m. The parade will need to continuously move forward so please do not stop the parade to take photos or talk to your child.  In case of inclement weather (i.e. threat of rain), the parade will be cancelled.  We will follow the same criteria for any outdoor recess.                   The PTA will sponsor room parties for the children.  The parties will run from: Kindergarten - 5                   2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.   Children must be in attendance throughout the day in order to participate in the parade and party.   Children will be permitted to wear costumes and clothing to school that does not interfere with physical education, lunch, and outdoor recess.  Accessories (props, masks, etc.) need to be carried to school in a bag and will be permitted to be used and/or worn for the parade only.  Since it will be the responsibility of your child to dress himself/herself, please consider this when choosing his/her costume.   If your child will require make-up or colored hair spray for his/her costume, please apply the make-up or spray at home prior to sending him/her to school.  No make-up or spray should be brought to school.  Costumes should be appropriate in taste for elementary school children with no adult or violent themes, and not so big as to cause problems walking in halls or through doors.  Children should be able to see adequately so as not to have an accident.  Anything resembling a weapon (gun, sword, knife, sticks, etc.) should be left at home.     The PTA will be providing the students with Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Minute Maid Apple Juice.  The ingredients are listed below:   Minute Maid Apple Juice – Apple Juice from concentrate with added ingredients of:  pure filtered water, concentrated apple juice, less than 0.5% of: calcium citrate (calcium source), Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), potassium phosphate.   **Cookies – bought from Costco.  Ingredients:  chocolate chunks (sugar, cocoa solids and cocoa butter, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), vanilla, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), vegetable shortening (palm oil, canola oil), sugar, eggs, invert syrup, molasses, whey powder, natural and artificial flavors, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, corn starch), salt.    **Produced on equipment that also processes peanuts and tree nuts.    If your child is unable to have the treat provided because of allergies, please send the school nurse a note informing us of this.  You are asked to provide your child with a treat that he/she can have if they have allergies to the cookies being served.    Please do not send in any other treats for the classrooms because of possible food allergies.  Treats brought to school will be sent home.   Finally, alternative activities will be planned for children whose families choose not to participate in this event beginning at 2:00 p.m.  Please contact Mr. LeCrone through email in order that appropriate activities can be arranged.  His email is:  brian_lecrone@ipsd.org.   With the excitement of Halloween, please emphasize the need for safety to and from school.             The May Watts Staff

5B Activities for the Week of October 6, 2014

Hello Parents and Students!

Here are the reminders for this week:

1.  Track and Field day is Monday.  Please dress your child appropriately for the weather and send a water bottle with them.

Here's what's going on in the curricular areas this week: 

Word Study:  The words have been posted to the blog.  This week we will be studying the other sounds of "C" and "G".  The test will be on Friday.

Math Accel:  On Monday we will be finishing up the last lesson in Unit 1.  The Unit 1 test will be on Thursday.  The students should be studying their notes and worksheets that they have taken/completed over the past few weeks.  We will be reviewing for the test on Monday and Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we will begin Unit 2 which focuses on different types of graphs and their uses.

English Language Arts (ELA):  We have been moving along in our anchor text entitled, Becoming Naomi Leon.  It's a great book.  We have been answering text-dependent questions in our journals and having some great discussions about the various problems the characters in the book are facing.  In Citizenship we will continue our Cool Tool lessons.  This week's topic is Understanding Feelings.  Our Where I'm From poems continue to be a focus.  Some students are putting the final touches on them while others are still completing the template.  In the computer lab, we have been working on our typing skills at the Typing Club website.  Also, we will be reading/discussing our first TFK of the year this week.

Science:  Science will end for the First Quarter on Tuesday when we take our Weather test.  The study guide was sent home last week.  We will also be reviewing in class on Monday for the test.  Please have your child bring their electronic device to school as we will be using them to review for the test.
If they do not have an electronic device, they can use a school laptop.

Social Studies:  Social studies begins this week!  We will begin with Exploration and Early Explorers.  The students will be starting an online Think Quest that will take a week or two to complete.  We will also be reading/discussing/analyzing a book entitled, Encounter.  We will be composing diary entries, making inferences and completing graphic organizers about this story.

It's going to be a BUSY week!

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me.

Have a great week!

~Mrs. Bennick :-)